If you don't learn from the past you are doomed to repeat history

Well, as Hitler failed to learn from Napoleon, another natural-born and charismatic leader neglected to learn any lessons....I failed to learn anything from the previous pantry experiment. Luckily the result of such an endeavor looks more like an abundance of overflow in the pantry and less like scores of troops freezing somewhere in Russia wearing the summer uniform for the military. If you don't know what I am referring to, then you obviously didn't have Mr. Bluhm or Mr. Murray for 11th and 12th grade history.

Brief history: In 2010, I noticed that my pantry, fridge and freezer were overflowing with stuff. I decided that I would cease going to the grocery store to see how long it would take before I actually ran out of things to eat...getting a little creative along the way. I vowed that I would no longer amass product and I would be more conscious of what I was buying to avoid throwing away food. Well...I looked in the pantry yesterday and decided that the 4 applesauce containers, the 4 BBQ sauce bottles and the 6 boxes of pasta (they ARE different shapes) were an indicator that I need to stop the bleeding and start the blogging.

In short, the pantry experiment is now, once again underway. I have noticed that there has been a gradual amassing of various "product" occurring in my house. And, as I am prone to do in times of great stress, I am avoiding studying for the general exams in lieu of non-productive hanging out, or, in this case....random blogging. I don't know that I will last for nearly a month with this round or ingredients, but I am absolutely willing to try. As the rules have stated--only fresh milk and fruit can be purchased although, I might, in the spirit of proper nutrition, allow for vegetables. We'll have to see how desperate this endeavor gets.

Bring on the Bulgar wheat and the rice wine vinegar!!

The End

And with the purchase of a loaf of bread (that has been discontinued for 5 months and then they brought it back, so it was really a no brainer) the pantry experiment has come to a close. I do believe that I was able to last a little under a month. I ate some good things, I ate some not so good things and I learned quite a bit about myself. Thanks for all that chimed in and gave me some great advice :)

And remember: always peel your bananas before you freeze them :)

5 Tips and The Master List

What have I learned from this experience:

1. If you don't have it in the house already, you probably can make do with something as a substitute to get by.

2. If it looks interesting in the grocery store and you want to be adventurous, put it back and go out for dinner. That way you don't wind up with boxes of "create-your-own-pad-thai", rice wine vinegar, teriyaki pork glaze and almond butter that you really don't know what to do with.

3. Rachel Ray, Ina Garten, Paula Dean and Bobby Flay make it look easy. It's their job. Chances are, if you are trying to recreate something that they did that "doesn't look that hard", it probably is and you should just go out.

4. That being said, who cares what Rachel Ray, Ina Garten, Paula Dean and Bobby Flay are doing? Do you're own thing! Chances are it will come out better if you put what YOU like in your own food.

5. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever.....EVER eat something that expired almost three years ago. Unless you have pepto-bismal, mylanta and are willing to pull an all-nighter.

Here is the master list although I am pretty sure that I am going grocery shopping this week. I need variety!

What I have left:
Freezer
- chicken breast
-chicken wings
-3 racks of ribs
-frozen tomatoes
-3 loaves of whole grain bread
-1 loaf of french bread
-frozen mango and strawberries,
-liqueur (yeah, me)
-Green beans, broccoli, cauliflower
- frozen wontons (where did that come from?)
- frozen scallions
- cheese
- pie crust

Pantry
flour
sugar
brown sugar
raisans
cashews
walnuts
oatmeal
pancake mix
cocoa powder
cheerios (2 boxes)
Kashi
Cornflakes
mushroom soup
chicken soup
canned tomatoes
a crap load of canned beans (ew)
balsamic glaze
rice wine vinegar
bbq sauce
ketchup
rice
rice noodles
create-your-own-pad-thai
onions
flax seed
pizza dough
bread crumbs
couscous
olive oil
honey
tea
17 cans of tuna
soy sauce
cornbread
canned corn
almond paste??
dried apricots
every spice under the sun

Fridge 
More tuna
eggs
milk
cole slaw
cranberry sauce
garlic
mylanta
ketchup
butter
italian dressing
orange, plum, peach
maple syrup
beer
salsa
pickles mayo

Attack of the 2008

So I guess I just keep stuff?

I unearthed this box of drinking chocolate from the back of the pantry yesterday and I got really excited because, hello, it's drinking chocolate and that's always tasty.

So I dropped some into a cup and just sort of mixed it will milk and nuked it in the microwave. I drank it all up...and it was really tasty with the exception of a little bit of chocolate clumping where it didn't melt. So I finish it and go over to the trash just to see what the directions say about how to actually make it

And right below the instructions was this little gem of a statement:

"Best if use by August 2008"

I...am SUCH a loser hahaha

But I am not dead yet...so that's always good.

(Upon closer thought I recalled that I actually got that box at Christmas...2008)

Guinea Pigs

No, I didn't eat them. I did have one over for dinner. His name was Antuan and he gave me two thumbs up on my slow cooked pulled pork made from pantry items.

Last night, I decided that I was going to make this pork shoulder, slow cooked, so that it could be a low maintenance dish. Previously, I have slow cooked chicken and beef and I know how to make bbq sauce for a beef recipe. I had to improvise with pork.

I used: salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, ketchup, garlic, cumin, chili powder, vegetable broth, cinnamon and brown sugar. Basically everything and the kitchen sink.

I marinated this overnight and threw it in the pot this morning on the way out the door at 7:00. Fast forward 10 hours...delicious, fall-off-the-bone pork.

The real improvisation? I made the berry cake thing out of crap that I threw together in the pantry. Including applesauce, which I found is a nice solution to oil, which I have been out of since before this challenge started. I added the requisite flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, whatever and I baked it. I did forget to measure some ingredients and the cake kind of came out uncake-like. More like a breakfast bread, which works well because I am almost out of smoothies and patience for that blender.

All in all, a good night, although now I have depleted a major meat component from the freezer. I am sensing the beginning of the end....

I...am not a Crook

So I was standing there today in Wal-Mart holding the package of mushrooms and I was fighting and fighting to put them back. And I thought to myself, "Just put them back. Do the stupid experiment the right way no matter how much tastier fresh mushrooms would be".

And?

I put them back.

Why?

Because I...am not a crook.....or a liar, or a cheater, or a false blog maker-upper...that would be lying :( (Boo liars)

Fast forward 30 minutes. I am standing over a crock pot about to dump in canned corn and canned mushrooms.  And I almost didn't do it because the mushrooms were sort of slimy and the corn was swimming in corn juice and all that. But I dumped them in because I needed a vegetable.

And it was damned tasty.

This meal was the pinnacle (epitome?) of this challenge. Canned corn, canned mushrooms, canned cream of mushroom soup, chicken and....guess what? Remember that nasty rice from the pouch from at least over a week ago that was horrid? That went in there too and you know what? It wasn't actually as horrid as I thought.

Score one for the crock pot and the pantry experiment. AND leftover lunch and dinner tomorrow :)

Let's Play "What's wrong with this picture?"

Okay, so this looks like a seemingly harmless bag of individual, serving size popcorn, yes? It is still in the packaging, the branding on it looks inviting, it's 94% fat free (please refer to buy only healthy crap phase in previous posts).

The problems here is more along the lines of timing...brace yourself.

When viewed up close, the writing on this package notes that this product has expired. Not one year ago, not even two years ago, but two and a half years ago. The sad and sickest part about this? I have only lived in Oklahoma for a year or so. Which means that I packed this up and moved if from Orlando.

I would say "Come on, you all have done it too" but in this case, I am about 99.8% positive that I am the only one. (See what I was saying about the whole hoarding thing from before?) Who saves 2 1/2 year old popcorn?!

Me, apparently.

I am going to be home now for a good stretch. So this makes Day 11 of meals from the pantry. I think on the menu tonight will be some sort of chicken with canned corn covered in cream of mushroom soup. I am  told by relatives that this is something that they make fairly often. I feel like it could be good. I am going to try to see if that nasty rice from the pouch that I attempted last week can be doctored up to fit the bill here.

Additionally, I am running out of smoothie stuff. I am going to have to go to the grocery store at some point because I really am running low (as in completely out of) all fresh fruit. I was thinking about bending some of my rules too to add some fresh vegetables to the mix as well (especially because that bag of fresh broccoli that I had been counting on is now brown and slimy) but I have frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower, canned corn, and mushrooms and both canned and frozen green beans (did I mention that I don't even LIKE green beans?) I also have about 6 cans of bean beans (again, I will mention that I don't like bean beans) so I will hold off on the rule bending until I am really out of veggies.

I unearthed these frozen vitatop muffin things from the freezer this morning for "breakfast". It wasn't horrid. I mean, if you cover anything with enough butter you can "fix" it. I think I may start making muffins or pancakes or something ahead of time for breakfast so that I can a) use up all the pantry stuff and b) have something quick and easy to grab for breakfast on the way out the door.

Either way, I hope to meet some sort of goal...